Grading Texas – Page 150 – Texas State Teachers Association

School Security Act? Let’s wait for the details

I can say at least one positive thing about the proposed Texas School District Security Act that was outlined yesterday by three legislators, including Senate leaders Tommy Williams, a Republican, and John Whitmire, a Democrat. The positive part is this. It would bolster the presence of licensed peace officers at school campuses instead of attempting to arm teachers, as Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was proposing a couple of weeks ago.

Although it is an improvement, this proposal, however, may not put an end to Dewhurst’s half-baked idea.

Since the actual legislation has yet to be drafted, there still are many unknowns about the proposed school security law. But I sense a couple of potential problems. The first is equity and fairness. The plan, as explained by the senators and State Rep. Dan Huberty, would allow voters in school districts to raise local property or sales taxes to pay for enhanced security.

That may make it easier for some wealthy districts to increase security for their students. But what about property poor districts, which for years have been struggling for more equity in school funding? Their students are no less worth protecting from potential danger, but the reality is those districts and parents may not be able to afford the greater tax burden. Maybe the sponsors can figure something out.

The second problem with this proposal is that it strongly signals that the legislative majority still is unwilling to increase the state’s commitment to public education funding, beginning with a restoration of the $5.4 billion cut from school district budgets two years ago. The new security plan would be paid for with local tax dollars, not state money.

Let me make clear that the legislative majority doesn’t include Sen. Whitmire, one of the proposed security act sponsors. Whitmire voted against the school cuts last year and has been a long-time advocate for public education and educators. But his co-sponsor, Sen. Williams, the new Senate Finance Committee chairman, voted for the cuts and now is sponsoring a proposed budget that would fail to restore the money.

“I know just how tight state and local budgets are these days,” Williams said.

Most local school district budgets are tight, thanks in large part to the cuts in state aid imposed in 2011. But the Legislature is sitting on an $8.8 billion surplus and a Rainy Day Fund balance of $11.8 billion. That is more than enough money to restore the education cuts and take care of other pressing state needs.

The only thing “tight” about the Legislature’s budgetary outlook is the unwillingness of the legislative majority to do the right thing for the education of Texas school children. The quality of that education will go a long way toward determining their future economic security.

Business group seeks tax cuts instead of school money

The Texas Association of Business (TAB) loves to hold news conferences and issue press releases about improving quality in the public schools, but now it’s time for the organization to put its money where its rhetoric has long been.

The legislative leadership has announced budget proposals that fail to restore the $5.4 billion slashed from public education two years ago. And, Gov. Rick Perry – the budget-cutter-in-chief and a longtime beneficiary of TAB’s political support – is even promoting the idea of using a vastly improved revenue picture to reduce taxes instead of repairing the damage to public schools.

Is the TAB leadership lining up with educators and other people who actually do support the public schools and demanding that the funding that was cut last session – more than $500 per student – be restored? That would be the right thing for TAB to do, of course, since our state’s employers – like our children – have much to lose if the governor and the legislative majority were to be allowed to continue to hack away at public education.

Alas, TAB has been silent on the budget cuts. But TAB President and CEO Bill Hammond has quickly endorsed the governor’s tax-cut idea and has jumped to the head of the line with his hand held out. According to the Quorum Report, Hammond is proposing his own plan for about $4 billion in tax cuts for business, including reductions in the franchise tax.

Keep in mind this is the same franchise tax that already has been notoriously underperforming and has never come close to replacing the revenue lost to the local school property tax cuts that the governor engineered in 2006. Hammond’s proposal would dig an even deeper budgetary hole for the public schools.

If Hammond really wants to help the cause of public education – and the future of Texas’ business community – he should demand that the Legislature bust its artificially low spending cap and, if necessary, dig into the $11.8 billion Rainy Day Fund to restore the cuts to the schools, health care and other important state services that were inflicted in 2011.

Hammond needs to understand that strong public schools require a lot more than demanding, as he frequently does, that students be bombarded with high-stakes standardized tests.

The attack on public schools continues

The Legislature’s revenue picture has improved by billions of dollars over the past two years, including an $8.8 billion surplus for the current budget period and a Rainy Day Fund balance approaching $12 billion, but the alleged state “leadership” is still stuck in reverse. The initial budget plans to emerge in the Senate and the House fail to restore the $5.4 billion slashed from public education in 2011 and, according to some experts, fall short of funding all the enrollment growth anticipated over the next two years.

As Paul Burka noted today in his Texas Monthly blog, these proposals don’t represent public policy. They are driven by ideology, an ideology that wants to privatize education for the relatively small number of Texans who can afford it and force everyone else’s children into home schools or cram them into the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear.

“This is absolutely nuts,” Burka wrote, and I am sure thousands of Texas parents and educators would agree.

Remember, the 2011 cuts were more than $500 per student at a time when public school enrollment in Texas is increasing by 80,000 to 85,000 students a year. Texas students, who have suffered from larger classes and diminished opportunities, deserve to have the damage to their learning environments restored. And, the money is there.

The final shape of the next public education budget is up to you, the educators, parents and other taxpayers who truly value the public schools. There is time to overhaul the initial drafts before the final state budget is written this spring, but that won’t happen if you don’t insist upon it. Contact your legislators and keep contacting them.

Keep reminding them that nostalgia for the 19^th Century has no place in 21^st Century budget-setting.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=14797

Excuses to the contrary, the money for schools is there

Don’t be misled by exaggerated hand-wringing and political pandering, folks. The Legislature has the money to restore the $5.4 billion cut from public schools two years ago – and then some. The only thing lacking is the political will to do the right thing, and when the will is weak, politicians will come up with excuses.

According to Comptroller Susan Combs’ official revenue estimate for the legislative session that begins today, general revenue tax collections for the current budget cycle were $8.8 billion more than she projected when the cuts were imposed in 2011. Additionally, she projected the Rainy Day Fund to swell to $11.8 billion by the end of the upcoming budget period.

Gov. Rick Perry and the legislative leadership should be making plans now to share that extra wealth with the people who made it possible – the taxpayers of Texas. It is our money, and it is more than enough to restore the education cuts, additional cuts made to health care programs and close a hole in the Medicaid budget. There even would be enough to set aside part of the Rainy Day fund as an endowment toward future water needs, as Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has proposed, and still save some money for a future fiscal emergency.

But, instead, we continue to hear excuses, particularly for treating the Rainy Day Fund as if it were an untouchable, sacred political cow rather than a valid revenue option intended to help Texas deal with short-term financial emergencies. Only recently, House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts still was suggesting the legislative majority wasn’t prepared to spend Rainy Day money to repair the public education budget.

“There’s not the will (among legislators) to spend Rainy Day funds for recurring expenses,” he told The Dallas Morning News.

Replacing money slashed from the public schools two years ago, however, is not a “recurring expense.” It is damage repair, this is an emergency and the money – the taxpayers’ money – is there.

Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston, who voted against the education cuts last session, offered some sound advice in the same newspaper article for parents and other taxpayers who are sick and tired of the political game-playing by the legislative majority. Parents and others who value the public schools “need to be screaming and hollering and emailing us, starting on Jan. 8 and keeping it up to the end of the session,” he said.

Turner is right, folks. Get in their face and stay there.

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